Family

 

Turkey by 5 y/o granddaughter

Turkey by 3 y/o granddaughter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cows. Guacamole. Fever. Piano. Drawings. Homebrew. Coffee. Bronchitis. Genuflect. Tea. Snow. Boxers.Blackout.

These are the words that filled our Thanksgiving weekend.

This was one of the rare times that all three of our children, our daughter-in-law, grandchildren, a fiance and a girlfriend were all together for a holiday. Perhaps it isn’t obvious from those words, but we had a wonderful time.

Our daughter and her fiance arrived from Nebraska on Wednesday evening. Our oldest son and girlfriend arrived that evening as well. On Thursday we were joined by our youngest son, daughter-in-law, and three granddaughters, my brother, and my mother. One of the reasons that we stay in this now-too-big-for-us house is to be able to accommodate overnight guests on holidays like this. Our little “inn” was filled.

Our oldest granddaughter was not feeling very well. She was running a fever (the next day it was 104.6F) but she wanted to be part of Thanksgiving. She was pretty quiet most of the day, but seemed to enjoy it. She and her sister made “hand turkeys”……tracings of their hands made to look like a turkey……for everyone as Thanksgiving cards. They are precious. Those hands will not be that size for long. Our oldest granddaughter recently started taking piano lessons. She loves it. Because she is shy about showing off her talents, she secretly played “Hot Cross Buns” for me when we were alone by the piano. I love that girl! She and her sister love a miniature tea set that I have, and we played tea party for quite a while as well. They are both so wonderful to have around.

Our daughter also was not feeling well. She had a horrible cough, had trouble sleeping and was tired most of Thanksgiving Day. The next day we tracked down an Urgent Care that would accept their out-of-state insurance, and she spent 3 hours there. She has bronchitis and sinusitis. She did get some antibiotic and a promise for an inhaler if she did not improve.

Our oldest son has been making his own beer for a few years now. He brought along a sampling of a new batch of oatmeal stout which was quite popular. He also made a huge batch of guacamole. He is meticulous in following the recipe no matter what he makes. We definitely appreciated his expertise. His girlfriend seemed to enjoy her time with us. It was the first time she has spent more than just a short time with our family. This was hard for her, as she gave up Thanksgiving with her own family (for the first time) in order to be with us.

Thanksgiving Day started out with a spectacular sunrise. Words do not do it justice. We live on a bend in the river with a little woods between the house and the water. The sky was red with streaks of green, yellow  and blue and the colors of the sky reflected on the water. The black silhouettes of the trees were backlit by the red sky and water. The day’s weather proved the truth of the old saying “Red sky at morning, sailors take warning”. The day began sunny and warm, with temperatures near 60F. By late afternoon, it was snowing. We watched the big fat snowflakes pile up on everything….cars, tree branches, patio grill and dead potted plants.

Around 4 am on Thanksgiving night, Merle woke up unable to breathe. He uses a C-Pap machine to keep him breathing while he sleeps. We had lost power and it was not allowing him to get any air as he slept. He woke up, realized that the power was out throughout the entire neighborhood, and called the power company. By the time we had power restored, the house was pretty chilly. But we woke up with lights.

When we have a big group of guests, it is always amazing to e to see the food and drink disappear (as the dishes pile up!). My normal coffee pot has not been cooperative recently. I decided not to buy a new one, and ended up using a huge 30 cup pot I have from when we had a large birthday party for a friend. I was surprised to see that each day we drank about 20 cups of coffee by noon. Merle loves to make big breakfasts for the bunch and coffee just flows right alongside those yummy waffles.Who would think we could eat so much after the large Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day?

Friday night, we went to a community theater play in my brother’s town. It is an hour’s drive away. This was a dinner theater production of a campy show called “Lie, Cheat & Genuflect”. The plot was ridiculously silly, and a few of the performers were painfully bad. But my brother did a great job…..even being onstage in boxers and a tank-style undershirt with black socks. Not an easy look to pull off, especially in front of a small town audience. It was a long night, but very enjoyable.

Our daughter has recently begun to dream of having a farm. She would love to have an organic farm with a small herd of cows, pigs, goats and chickens. She had the opportunity to learn about this when she was young, but she had no interest in it at that time. Now she has the interest, but not much opportunity. So Merle took her with him to care for our cows. Even with bronchitis. The cows didn’t mind.

We talked. And talked. Politics. Family. Wedding plans. Food. Drink. More talk.

Our daughter and the fiance leave tomorrow morning. The weekend has flown by.

Oh, yeah, we also had a Thanksgiving Day meal with good wine, great food and excellent conversation. Everyone helped make the meal. A kitchen full of bowls, pans, ingredients. utensils, people, kids and dogs.

It doesn’t get any better.

Advertisement